


sunshowers

by erasvita



Category: Those Who Went Missing
Genre: TWWM, esk, heli gets his elemental, sunshowers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-07
Updated: 2020-01-07
Packaged: 2021-02-27 08:40:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 602
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22154158
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/erasvita/pseuds/erasvita
Summary: Total word count: 605Base Score: 12 AP (Writing: 605 words)+5 AP (Elemental: 5 AP * 1)+5 AP (Personal Work Bonus)Total AP per submission: 22Base Score: 6 GP (Writing: 605 words)+5 GP (Elemental: 5 GP * 1)Total GP per submission: 11





	sunshowers

He isn’t sure when he first found the sunlight.

There are memories fluttering like dry leaves through his mind - hazy, paper-thin, half-formed things that spin out of sight the moment he tries to look at them - a streak of gold coming down between the treetops, a dust mote caught in the air an inch from his nose. Sometimes, at the end of the day when the sun is hanging low, and the horizon is about to swallow it whole, he can hear it calling to him. Like it’s begging for him to save it, to keep it from sinking down into the night -

And sometimes, when the horizon turns molten and the remaining light begins to leech from the sky, he thinks for a second that it was not the distant mountains that swallowed the sun after all, but himself. Because in those times he feels, for however brief a moment, that he is the sun, as if the light is filling him to the point of bursting. And all he can see is light, as if it’s coming from him, as if the sunlight in his eyes is turning the rest of the world gold.

But then that light, too, would fade. And Helianthus would wait all night for the sun to return on the other end of the world.

When the sunlight did return each morning he would greet it like an old friend, standing out in the open expanse of his meadow with his head thrown back to track the sun’s motion across the sky. There were days when all he did was watch the sun, with a sense of anticipation and longing that hitherto had been unknown to him. Not that Helianthus was unfamiliar with the general sense of wanting - all he ever saw was something he wanted, the softness of the flower, the sweetness of the grass, the brightness of the stars against a moonless sky - and yet, this was different. It seemed to him as if the sun had some how taken a hold on him - as if it were pulling him a little bit closer every day, until one day when he looked up it appeared as though the sun were close enough to singe the earth. 

And day after day, the sense that something was coming continued to grow. 

Until, finally, it finally broke.

He was sunbathing, daydreaming, on a boulder near his boundary when the light changed. Slanting over him in golden streaks, the world outside of the spotlight seemed dim and far off, like all that mattered was the bit of light that bent around him. Helianthus lifted his gaze and thought, for an instant, that he had captured the sun without realizing it. Because caught between his ever-changing antlers was a ball of light, golden and shimmering, like it was trembling from the force that held it there. Helianthus tilted his head one way, and another; the orb moved with him, pale light washing over his back.

And all around him water seemed to be glittering in the air, as a summer spray rained down all around him. This, too, came from the light trapped above him, and the esk wondered if it was the light weeping. 

But oh! Surely if the sun was crying, it was crying from joy, because the warmth of the sun was filling him, and for the first time, in a long time,

Helianthus did not want, 

or ache, 

or wonder at the loneliness of the world.

He simply listened to the rain falling down around him like tears of gold, and thought,

_life is good._

**Author's Note:**

>  **Total word count: 605  
>  Base Score: 12 AP (Writing: 605 words)**  
> +5 AP (Elemental: 5 AP * 1)  
> +5 AP (Personal Work Bonus)  
>  _Total AP per submission: 22_
> 
> **Base Score: 6 GP (Writing: 605 words)**  
>  +5 GP (Elemental: 5 GP * 1)  
>  _Total GP per submission: 11_


End file.
